'Pop' Sees Plenty of Spurs in Ferry's Cavaliers

You pray the house of basketball that general manager Danny Ferry and coach Mike Brown have built here in Cleveland isn't made of balsam. You hope the frame and the foundation are pieced together with mortar and brick and not driftwood and rusty nails.

 

Plans for building a basketball team from floor to roof aren't as exacting as the architectural renderings for a five-star hotel on Mars. Talent goes a long way in the former, but talent alone isn't always enough, although an NBA team is never hurt when it has a bright light like LeBron James illuminating the project each night.

 

A team like the Cavs can follow that shining light until the final brick in the NBA championship is laid.

 

So far, what Ferry and Brown have built is an impressive structure, coach Gregg Popovich said Monday night before his Spurs lost to the Cavaliers, 97-95.

 

Popovich could look out onto the arena floor and see how strong that house was. "Pop" could see a team with the NBA's best record, a team 12- or 13-men deep in talent, a team with LeBron to rely on in the clutch, a team with the ability to do something extraordinary.

 

"Great, great opportunity to get it done this year," Pop said.

 

And Pop should know.

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